Should we turn the playroom into an extra bedroom?

[BirthdayKake]

Help!

Ok so at the minute we have 5 children and are wanting to have one more in a couple of years.

We have four bedrooms - one huge one with an en suite for three girls, one box room for the eldest, only boy, a small double for DH and me and a nursery for the baby (girl).

We have a playroom downstairs that would definitely fit a bed, wardrobe, desk, drawers etc to make it into a bedroom. I'm wondering whether to put my eldest girl (9 years old) in there.

What would everyone else do??

@ineedaholidaynow how many children / bedrooms do you have?

More bedrooms than people in the house.

So is there any other reason to have a large family other than to want it and be proud of it? The DC don’t get a say do they? It’s entirely parents. So yes, I’m site they do congratulate themselves on having what they want. Who doesn’t do this?

Unless people are wealthy, parents of large families tend to cadge lifts for their DC. Pretty evident when collecting DC from after school clubs, sports matches etc as parents of large families cannot be everywhere at the same time so others are roped in. Of course some DC never get to do anything other then be with their siblings.

Bubbles, I think you are just trying to wind people up. We deliberately bought a 7 seater car so that we would still be able to give other kids lifts. When you have lots of kids your life is so built around them to just accept these inconveniences of driving them around etc as it’s such a big part of your life.

If the poster has 6 children and 2 adults they don’t fit into a 7 seater car do they? I have a 7 seater car. However even with fairly generous third row seats, luggage space is cut down. However going from 5 to 6 DC is a big difference. Few cars take 8 so two cars and double the emissions.

IlSo yes, I’m site they do congratulate themselves on having what they want. Who doesn’t do this?

What the same as those 'congratulating'themselves for only having 2 for example. what a load of. All these parents congratulating themselves.

I've spent my life ( happily ) giving lifts to children from other families, most who probably have no more than 2 siblings. Its usually reciprocated. It's kind of a fact of life now days once you have more than 1 child. Newsflash you can't be in different places at the same time even if you ONLY HAVE 2 CHILDREN.

@BubblesBuddy

@coco123456789 you speak a LOT of sense. Honestly I really shouldn't waste time replying to these judgemental posters but DH is here now to supervise our 4 million children so I may as well.

I grew up in a huge house with two siblings. Our own massive bedrooms, en suites, PlayStations, computers, exotic holidays etc. I NEVER had to share. But my parents are a pair of cunts who made my life hell until I moved house and changed my number. We're not close at all. They don't even know where I live. And I'm still shit at sharing.

My house might not be Buckingham Palace, but I feel lucky every day to be here, and I'd like to think my children do too. We've got out of a shitty life where I/we were abused by people who were supposed to love us. Now they have a lovely dad (ok, step dad, but dad) who is a wonderful man. We bought a house in a pretty village in the countryside with views of horse fields, a fantastic primary school and a grammar school nearby (which my eldest got into last year). The house has large spaces, no one is crammed anywhere, the older girls have their own en suite but prefer me to bath them so the shower is still practically brand new!

Everything we do is for our children. When we moved to this house, the ground floor level of the full length extension was a freezing cold garage, but within two months we had it converted into a playroom, utility and downstairs toilet, and it's one of the best £10k I've ever spent.

I watched the girls in their room last night (which IS sectioned off so the eldest has a bit of her own space), and they were all sat on the top bunk of the bunk bed watching TV together, as they are allowed to on a Friday and Saturday night, and I realised that they would probably not want to be separated. Even the eldest likes sleeping with a light on at night. She'd rather be upstairs with her sisters than downstairs on her own. Of course if things change in the future we'll reconsider.

I had my first baby with DH last year and he is a fantastic father, just as I knew he would be. Yes I am absolutely considering having another baby with him, in a few years - not yet. I'd like to think that I may have lots of children but they won't grow up to be as rude as some people on here...

Oh and study wise. I am well educated and I hope for my lot to be the same, as long as they're happy. My eldest had a desk bed built especially for him over the box in his box room, which he loves, although he's been doing his home school work downstairs! The playroom has a large desk, there is space for a desk in all bedrooms and we have a big dining table too. There are such things are ear plugs and libraries too, but they would be worst case scenarios!

You might judge me and others for having large families, but I bet I could find a fuck tonne of stuff to judge you for...

Baffles me why people go on a larger families thread just to slate people for having a large family

@Concerned7777 😂

@ineedaholidaynow so either you do have a larger family that's got a million bedrooms or you indeed dont have a larger family which begs the question why you'd even consider looking at this page when its absolutely no relevance to you other than to troll and spout your single minded views onto others

@Concerned7777 Exactly 🤦🏽‍♀️

@Concerned7777 i agree, op asked for an opinion and everyone is slating her for how many children she has and the fact they share a room.

@BirthdayKake i think your family life sounds wonderful and full of love. I did read someones option for you about bedrooms so which i thought also sounded good. Will post it when i go back through thread

I have 4 dc. Who share rooms they are very happy to do this and even now in the holidays they will choose to camp out on one floor altogether. Who says they have to have their own room?
My brothers and i lived with my grandparents and we shared rooms, even when my uncle lived at home one of my brothers went in with him, i cant ever remember anyone making it an issue, my uncle treats us like his own kids.
Ive only read snippets of this thread but im sure as hell dame lucky i have my 4 dc specially in a time like this they have each other, they are growing closer and closer each day, yes they have niggles but then who doesnt.

OP I grew up as the eldest of 7, I had an amazing childhood, we never went without.
I now have 4 children, pregnant with my 5th. DP grew up with just one sister and he hated it.
Everybody is different.

Op maybe you could set your playroom up so it can be used as a bedroom occasionally. Sofa bed etc, then if eldest or one of the others in the future wants some peace for a night or to have a sleepover etc then they can use that room

Agree it is ridiculous that people come on the large families board and slag off large families. Go and start your own thread somewhere else to bitch if you dont bloody like it

I’ve tried to read all this so hope I haven’t missed anything but could you not go downstairs? I’d be tempted to do that instead of putting one of the children downstairs. I’d be interested in seeing what you decide. Xx

Just wanted to say what a horrible, judgemental load of twats on this thread. Some people judging number of children probably go on numerous foreign holidays and never worry about carbon footprint etc. Who do they think they are judging - it’s a larger family board so why join or look at it only to judge. You sound like a great mum - my oldest daughter who is 14 coming 15 has room downstairs and loves it and finds it better than sharing.

Well, I'm one of 3, and I thought we were a small family - lots of my friends were one of 5 or more (I was home schooled and for some reason that attracts big families, or at least it did when I was a kid).

Most of my friends shared until they or a sibling left home, and I don't remember them minding it. So I don't think it's an automatic problem in the way some posters are implying. And there are things you can do to break a room up (curtains, bookcases, etc) if it is a problem.

I actually shared as a teenager with a baby/toddler sibling and loved it! I was sometimes woken up at night but I don't remember it happening often, and I used to be able to get back to sleep quickly anyway - I suppose if you have a teen you know struggles with sleeping you might want to avoid that situation.

Congratulations on your lovely family, and good luck for the future. I'm sure your children will survive the horrors (!) of sharing a room. We have three children, hoping for one more, and the two boys are sharing at the moment. Their sister is sad being in a room on her own.

As for children being bad for the environment, this annoys me, I read the studies, and it is all based on dividing the amount of CO2 emissions of a country by their population, which makes no sense to then claim adding a child adds that amount of emissions. It's going to be tiny compared to the amounts from industry.

Gosh I can’t believe the horrid posters on here.

I think that as the kids get older you might still find the playroom a great space as a snug/study/tv room or whatever. Our playroom became that and without having screens in our bedrooms meant we didn’t hibernate upstairs as teens.

That being said, if you do convert it to a bedroom I would suggest you have it as your own as I wouldn’t be comfortable with teens on the ground floor for many reasons (including their ability to get to the fridge in the night as they famously eat you out of house and home).